1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rectangular folding box, at least comprising: four side walls, which are connected to one another by fold lines, and a bottom wall comprising at least one flap. More specifically, the present invention relates to a corrugated box for shipping which can be easily converted to a container for displaying articles, especially packages in the form of flexible tapered pouches which are flat on one end. The shipping and display container of this invention is formed from a one-piece generally rectangular foldable blank of planar construction provided with a unique arrangement of fold lines, tear lines and cut lines or severance lines. These lines facilitate the box being set up for receiving a plurality of articles and shipped to a destination and then opened along defined die cut lines to facilitate the box being divided into two sections. The two section are connected along a fold line extending from the front-to-rear of the box with the two sections of the box then being pivoted to a position alongside of each other to expose the plurality of packages oriented interiorly of the box in a manner to effectively display the packages.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various articles including food articles are frequently packaged in flexible pouches or packages which are difficult to display. Such food articles include snack items, animal feed packages and the like and typically are supported on various types of display racks which support the articles in a manner so that a customer can easily observe and gain access to the packages. It has been the practice to package the flexible pouches or packages in a corrugated board box or container which is shipped to a point of distribution such as a retail site at which point the box or container is opened and the flexible pouches or packages are removed and placed on the display rack.
Folding boxes of this kind are generally known and are often given the name American folding box or regular slotted container (RSC). These boxes have cover flaps which in the closed position completely cover the top of the box. The folding boxes are produced from a cardboard blank, adhesive bonding (hot melt or cold melt) being used. Advantages of such a box are the low price and the possibility of stacking filled bags with a tapering opening end in a staggered manner on top of one another, thus allowing them to be accommodated without loss of volume. A drawback is that when the cover flaps are folded open the presentation of the bags in the horizontal position is extremely poor. Although a better presentation of the bags with tapering opening ends could be achieved by placing the bags upright in the box, this would be at the expense of a high loss of volume in the box.
The object of the invention is to avoid the above drawbacks and to provide a relatively inexpensive (American) folding box which is modified such that bags with tapering opening ends can be accommodated in the box in a staggered, mutually overlapping manner without loss of volume while nevertheless allowing an attractive presentation of the bags.
Several U.S. patents illustrate box structures in which the articles such as flexible pouches are shipped, can be converted at the site of sale or use to a display container. Such patents include:
______________________________________ 1,919,880 2,446,366 3,305,078 2,020,876 2,888,132 3,362,616 2,131,391 3,139,979 3,385,430 2,152,079 3,280,968 3,653,495 2,269,715 ______________________________________
Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 3,653,495 discloses a container which can be shipped with a plurality of overlapping pouches therein and converted to a display device at a retail site. The structure in this patent involves various features, however, such as internal partitions and edgewise loading of the pouches, that complicate the setup and loading of the box.
While the above patents disclose shipping boxes which can be converted to a display device, the prior patents do not disclose the specific unique structural features of this invention which enable it to be effectively used in automatic case loading and sealing operations, shipped to a destination while oriented on a pallet or other similar structure in a manner to provide stable support and strength to minimize the possibility of crushing or damage to the box and contained articles and with the major dimensions oriented horizontally to position the boxes in a stable condition on a pallet or the like and which can be easily and quickly converted to a display container when it arrives at the retail outlet or other destination.